Kenwyne Jones apologises to Stoke City team-mate Glenn Whelan for damaging his car

Kenwyne Jones has promised to pay for the damage he inflicted on Glenn
Whelan’s car but the identity of the Stoke player who smuggled a pig’s head
into the dressing room was last night shrouded in mystery.

Paying the price: Kenwyne Jones will pay for the damage he caused to Glenn Whelan's carPhoto: ACTION IMAGES

Jones has apologised to team-mate Whelan after throwing a brick through his car window, following the remarkable training ground prank that became an internet sensation on Friday.

Whelan was widely believed to have been the player who left the severed head in Jones’s locker but the Republic of Ireland international has claimed he is innocent and Stoke are still attempting to pinpoint the perpetrator of the practical joke.

Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager, held talks with his squad on Saturday, before today’s game against Southampton, in an attempt to clear the air and is determined to avoid any disciplinary action being taken as he believes it was merely a prank.

Pulis travelled down to the South Coast yesterday and met with his players at their hotel to demand an explanation, but is relaxed about the situation and confident it was simply a joke that went too far in the last week of training. But Jones was clearly still angry after the bizarre incident and though he dismissed any notion of racist or religious connotations he revealed on his Twitter account that he was unhappy none of his team-mates had come forward to own up.

“First off for all the people saying this had anything to with racism I’m not endorsing that.

“Secondly i’ve apologised to glen Whelan for the destruction of his property. For all the people that think that the pigs head wrapped in my clothes was banter great so is the broken window.

“As far as tension in the squad there’s nun (sic) myself and whelan had our thrash out and he said it wasnt him so I apologised n im paying for it.

“As for the person who did it no one has come fwd n apologised to me so I guess the joke was gd then.

“But as I said if you have the belly to take banter to that level be willing to accept the reaction. Thats final no more comments.”

Stoke have launched an investigation into the incident, which was alerted to the world after winger Brek Shea posted a picture of the pig’s head in the dressing room on his Instagram account. Further talks are expected on Monday.